1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to an input device, more specifically a small footprint keyboard with embedded touch pad functionality.
2. Background Information
The proliferation of mobile devices has increased focus on convenient, compact and feature rich keyboards. The traditional PC-compatible keyboard, known as “QWERTY”, from the standard array of letters required for the habitual recognition in the touch-type-method, is too large and bulky for portable devices. A number of solutions exist, but most of them compromise with either the QWERTY, or other sides to the keys and commands needed for full compatibility. The limit to the anatomical acceptance of the size of a single normal dynamic (not tactile) key, seems to bottom out at approximately 12.5 mm in width. It should be noted that by “QWERTY” a wide range of keyboard layouts should be understood though there are certain national variations that changes the order of the keys. It should also be noted that the mechanical properties of keys can differ significantly. For fast touch type work keyboard with keys with noticeable travel depth before closing a switch is found to be efficient, herein referred to as touch method keyboard, TMK. An alternative type is here referred to as tactile type where a metal dome acts as a spring that gives a distinct sensory feedback on closing the key over a short distance that can be less than 0.5 mm.
From the known art the traditional laptop keyboard should be noted where a feature rich keyboard is placed at the upper part of a working surface with a touch pad below, partly inside a larger area used for hand rests and stabilisation when typing. This keyboard is large as it is, and is hard to reduce in size any further, without rethinking the strict rectangular arrangement, by which all traditional solutions are recognized. Adding a touch pad mouse to this array in any reasonable combination with the QWERTY work position, inevitably expands the rectangular depth of the working surface of the device to a wasteful degree, and contradicts the possibilities of compressing it along with any reduction of form factor.
The keyboard or keypad can be a restriction on the degree of miniaturisation and from the known art the cell phone keyboard should be noted where each key is overloaded with functionality while other functions are completely reworked such as touch pad transferred to functionality within a touch sensitive screen, removed such as mouse keys.
Along with the various keyboards a number of optional pointing devices may be attached or related to said keyboards. Mechanical pointing means known as mouse are common with stationary computers and frequently used with laptops. A mouse usually requires a large flat surface for proper operations, a constraint that can be too limiting in mobile use.
Laptops are frequently equipped with a touchpad as a pointing device, a large area disposed below the keys of the keyboard. This extends the depth of the laptop surface significantly and becomes a limiting factor regarding miniaturisation.
As a further alternative laptops are frequently equipped with a small control stick type pointing device in the middle of the keyboard. The latter has remained largely out of favour due to unsatisfactory precision and stability.
Finally there are other alternatives that have had limited success such as pointing directly at a touch sensitive screen, optionally using a stylus, trackballs disposed near the keyboard, typically to the right, and inverted optical mouse systems as a non-mechanical alternative to a trackball.
The inventor of the present invention has identified this traditional thinking as a limiting factor and thus a problem, and found a need in the art for a keyboard that retains most of the functionality of a full sized PC keyboard yet operates well in a small form factor, allowing compression of the input surface area.